The idea for Snapsil, an easy-open portion control container, was conceived a number of years ago, but it's only in recent months that the company has made its breakthrough commercially. With a few products on the market in Australia and New Zealand since October last year, and some about to launch in the US and UK, Snapsil and machinery partner Multivac were making their foray into the Japanese market at Tokyo Pack.
PKN spoke to Neil Cashman, CEO of Snapsil, about the response at Tokyo Pack. Cashman said Snapsil's integrated, one-handed easy open solution had attracted a lot of interest at the four-day event, with over 2000 samples handed out in the first two days.
“Snapsil technology has a lot of appeal for the Japanese market, which has an eye for solutions that present products attractively while providing an engaging consumer experience,” he said.
Applications are varied across wet and dry products, but in Japan particular interest had been shown in the concept for sauces and dressings, beverage additives and alcohol.
“It's also suitable for the vending market, which has huge penetration in Japan,” Cashman said.
Cashman said that Multivac provides the proven thermoforming processing technology, and the company partners with material suppliers like Bemis, Klockner Pentaplast, Sealed Air and Visy depending on the market, to support Snapsil commercialisation. Customers are free to use their material supplier of choice.
Snapsil can also provide a design service, tailoring the technology by shape, opening size and function to provide an optimal portion control solution.
A few off-the-shelf options include a snap-bottle four pack, available in 25ml to 100ml sizes; snap bottle in 50ml to 250ml; crush pack in 10ml to 50ml; snap stick in 6ml to 40ml; refill bottle in 10ml to 100ml. All options offer O2 and H20 barrier properties.
Cashman told PKN he is extremely excited about the opportunities for the Snapsil business in all markets.
“After years of development work, the technology is finally taking hold. It's an idea that's time has come,” he said.
